hope for Babylon: and for America

Today we read from Jeremiah 51:1-53 in the One Year Bible. Jeremiah says that Babylon has fallen, and he tells his readers to flee the city because it will be utterly destroyed. There is a brief verse, in verse 8, where he says, "Give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed." But then he gives up on Babylon altogether.

There is a battle going on for America today, as well. A battle for the "soul" of the country, as one of the two poor candidates for president has put it. But whether the battle lines are as clear as either presidential candidate would like to make them appear, there are definitely forces of good and evil at war in the country. It's tempting to do what Jeremiah finally does in our reading today and say, "We would have helped her if we could: nothing can save her now."

But you and I are called to continue to fight. To pray for people like Amy Coney Barrett, who will stand up for decency and goodness and truth, against the narrative that so many on the radical left want to insist we listen to. I read today a post that said that many in our country are afraid of what the radical left will do if they win this election, and they're even more afraid of what they'll do if they lose. There are some unhinged people in our country (on both sides of the aisle), and we have to continue to pray for them, and be a voice of reason in the midst of this clamoring chaos.

It will all come right in the end. God has already won. But what we do here in the middle of the fight will determine the eternal destination of many of our brothers and sisters. Let's fight for their sakes.

God, thanks for giving us hope that we can still give America some medicine... perhaps she can still be healed.